Nottingham nurses protest against government’s one per cent public pay cap

Nottingham nurses and union members protested and rallied against government cuts to NHS staff pay rises.

Nurses and members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) spoke on the plinth at Speakers’ Corner this afternoon (July 27), by the Brian Clough statue, saying a one per cent cap on public sector pay rises is affecting the health service.

The group called on the Government to restore ‘fair pay awards’ for NHS staff, whose pay has been cut by 14 per cent since 2010.

RCN regional officer Sarah-Leigh Barnett said: “Enough is enough. Our nurses voted overwhelmingly at their annual congress for action. This is the start of that action.

“A one per cent pay cap over the last seven years has led to a 14 per cent pay reduction.

“It’s a negative cycle: we’ve got less nurses coming into the profession to train because the bursary [fund] has been lifted. And those nurses that are in the profession already are so stretched that they’re leaving.

“We’ve got 40,000 vacant posts across the UK – in England that’s one in nine empty posts. That is going to have an impact on patient care.”

The event took place by the Brian Clough Statue.

The event was one of 40 taking place across the UK as part of RCN campaign Scrap the Cap.

Members of the public filled in postcards to their local MPs, including Labour Nottingham North MP Alex Norris, asking them to urge the Government to lift the cap.

The news comes after NHS figures were released earlier this week showing a fall of 1,274 nursing and health visitor staff in the NHS in England between March and April 2017.

Separate data revealed a 16 per cent rise in the number of vacant NHS nursing and midwifery posts being advertised in the past year.

People signed postcards to their local MPs.

Ms Barnett added: “We’ve got an ageing workforce, they’re going to be approaching retirement and if we can’t attract people in, and with Brexit and reductions on overseas and European-trained nurses coming into the profession, that’s leading to the vacancies.

“Within the NHS, to plug those gaps they’re having to use agency nurses and that costs an absolute fortune.”